In addition to setting your business up with the best merchant account designed to fit your its needs, we here at CheapestMerchantAccounts.com know that there are additional ways to help improve on your business. Over the next few weeks we will be delivering additional articles which we hope will help small businesses both online and off, improve their business and head into 2012 better prepared to be a success than ever before. Our second article in this series is concerned with social media, something we are working on improving with our own website.
Improving Your Social Media Presence
You can’t go a day without hearing about the impact of social media on everything from traditional media like radio and newspapers to the way our kids communicate.
Every day it’s Facebook this and Twitter that.
And yet, many individuals and businesses still struggle with how to use social media or even why they should get involved at all. First let’s take a look at some of the benefits of social media:
- Relationships – you can build a relationship with your customers and prospects.
- Exposure – you’ll be able to get the word out about your products and services. An average Facebook user has about 100 friends. Your brand is amplified.
- Increased traffic – the more people see you in social media, the more they visit your site and store.
- Improves your search ranking – Google now incorporates your social media standing in their search results.
- Customer feedback and service – If you have positive, happy customers they will post about their feelings. Grumpy customers can be handled quickly before they do more damage.
- Lead Generation and Conversions – social media helps turn suspects into prospects and prospects into buyers.
- Market Intelligence – what do my customers and prospects want? What do they like? Instead of a focus group,
- Direct – You can ask the customer directly.
Now that we know the advantages, how do we go about improving our social media tactics? Here are some easy ways:
Generate Content
By publishing valuable free content you position yourself and your company as experts and authority figures in your field. When you publish articles and blog posts, let your social media channels know by sending out tweets and status updates that link back to your content.
Even better, utilize tools that allow your users to easily recommend your content on their social media sites. Note that Google Plus is now more important than Facebook and Twitter in this area. You must allow your content to be “Plus One’d.” This is Google’s version of the Facebook “Like.”
The reason it is so important is that the Google search engine now uses social media to help determine rankings. But they do not use Facebook “Likes” in the ranking results at all.
Share Your Personality
Social media is not just about tweeting your latest blog post to the world. Include some personal tweets in the mix. People like to buy from people they know, like and trust so share your personality.
Primarily send out useful or informative links to articles and information you know your customers and prospects will find useful. Blend in links to your own articles and posts. And finally, add in the occasional personal tweet to keep things light.
Collect Leads
It’s great to be a social media star. But you need conversions and sales. To do that you want to build up a customer email list with double opt-in permissions. Encourage people on your social media sites to sign-up for the email list.
As usual, you must send them valuable information that they can use to improve their lives. Over time, you can introduce product sales and start to monetize the list.
There’s a lot of hype about social media lately. But it can’t be denied that it is changing the way we communicate and share information. Look at it as the opportunity of a lifetime to listen to what people want, provide them with products and services that meet their needs and make a solid profit in the process.
Stay or Switch from To Another Merchant Service?
Are you unhappy or happy with credit card procesor services ? Share your comments, insights, honest opinions, service levels from merchant account . Have you been Shutoff, Closed, Denied, Cancelled by ? What are the ratings for ? Post your experiences with on Sales Practices, Length of Contract, Hidden Fees, Early Termination Fees, Problems with , Chargebacks, Extra Fees, Transaction Rates, Contracts, Contacts, Support, Services . Find lower cost merchant account processor quotes and comparisons no contract service providers that have cheaper rates then . Leave your customer rating and review of below.